NIST Releases Preliminary Cybersecurity Framework

Proposal offers private and public-sector organizations a common language for understanding and managing cybersecurity risk.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has published a preliminary cybersecurity framework for owners and operators of critical infrastructure.

The voluntary framework, developed in response to a presidential executive order, provides both private and public-sector organizations with a common language for understanding and managing cybersecurity risk internally and externally. It can be used as a tool to prioritize actions and to align policy, business and technology to manage risk.

The document lists five core functions -- identify, protect, detect, respond and recover -- all of which offer a high-level, strategic view of how an organization deals with cybersecurity risk. NIST said the framework was created to complement, and not replace, an organization's existing business or cybersecurity risk management process. The agency also said its approach focuses on outcomes, rather than any particular technology.

The framework is being watched closely as a vehicle for bringing closer cooperation between the public and private sectors on cybersecurity practices, in part because of the continued difficulty in Congress of crafting legislation that would allow the government and industry to share cyber intelligence. The preliminary framework released by NIST incorporates recommendations from a series of meetings with industry groups to address concerns over cybersecurity monitoring and reporting, as well as privacy protection practices. However, because the framework is voluntary, its adoption remains uncertain.

The final framework is due to be released in February 2014, following a 45-day public comment period on the preliminary framework. "We encourage organizations to begin reviewing and testing the preliminary framework to better inform the version we plan to release in February," NIST director Patrick Gallagher said in a written statement. "The framework will be a living document that allows for continuous improvement as technologies and threats evolve. Industry now has the opportunity to create a more secure world by taking ownership of the framework and including cyber risks in overall risk management strategies."

The cybersecurity framework was prompted by President Obama's executive order, issued in February of this year. The executive order -- and a related presidential policy directive -- called for a number of improvements in public-private information sharing, and created a process for building a framework of voluntary cybersecurity standards for critical infrastructure companies. The order instructed NIST to work with other agencies and private industry in creating a risk framework and best practices.

The need for industry-wide guidance on managing cybersecurity risk is growing, as cyber threats become more dangerous and sophisticated. Examples include emerging threats that want to damage systems, and new groups of attackers that are driven by a wide range of motives, according to industry experts.

Although the framework is voluntary, organizations are encouraged to adopt it when finalized because it's an opportunity to agree on basic security principles and practices, said Tom Conway, director of McAfee Federal, a participant in the development process. Conway added: "The framework will be a very important tool in raising the cyber resiliency of individual companies, each of the critical infrastructure industry segments, and thus the nation as a whole."

Critics complain that instead of creating a sense of urgency around certain issues, the recommendations in the framework are given the same weight. The fact that it creates additional reporting obligations that takes away from actually protecting networks isn't encouraging, and somewhat typical of NIST's got-to-document mentality.

In NIST's defense, one of their policy advisers, Adam Sedgewick, has said the agency considered prioritizing certain recommendations, but the large range of companies covered by the guidelines make a single list of priorities impractical.

Published: 2015-03-03Off-by-one error in the ecryptfs_decode_from_filename function in fs/ecryptfs/crypto.c in the eCryptfs subsystem in the Linux kernel before 3.18.2 allows local users to cause a denial of service (buffer overflow and system crash) or possibly gain privileges via a crafted filename.

Published: 2015-03-03** REJECT ** DO NOT USE THIS CANDIDATE NUMBER. ConsultIDs: none. Reason: This candidate was withdrawn by its CNA. Further investigation showed that it was not a security issue in customer-controlled software. Notes: none.

How can security professionals better engage with their peers, both in person and online? In this Dark Reading Radio show, we will talk to leaders at some of the security industry’s professional organizations about how security pros can get more involved – with their colleagues in the same industry, with their peers in other industries, and with the IT security community as a whole.